A 3-year-old Allentown girl died Friday night after falling from a fourth-floor window at Seventh and Turner streets in Allentown, according to police. Her 5-year-old sister remains in critical condition.

Tamara Arnette was pronounced dead at 8:29 p.m. Friday, about 40 minutes after she and her sister tumbled out of a window of an apartment building at 702 Turner Street.

Capt. Gail Struss said authorities were called at 7:50 p.m. on reports that two children had fallen out of a window. She said both girls were taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest.

A distraught Allentown woman said she tried in vain to catch the girls.

Sirissa Perry said she was standing by Nikita's Bar on Turner Street when she heard the screen from a window hit the sidewalk nearby.

"And then I saw the girls falling out the window," Perry said, breaking into sobs. "I ran to catch them, but I couldn't get them in time. I couldn't make it."

She said the two children weren't crying at first, but the older one appeared to open her eyes after medics started to treat her.

One child, who was seen kicking her legs, was placed in a Cetronia ambulance and taken from the scene at 8:10 p.m. The smaller of the pair was taken to the hospital minutes earlier, witnesses said.

A window was open on the fourth floor facing Turner Street, with a small, child-size chair positioned at the edge.

At least a half-dozen Allentown police cars responded just after the fall and cordoned off Turner Street at Seventh Street. A crumpled window screen lay on the sidewalk.

Brenda Flowers, who lives nearby on Seventh Street, said her friend called her with the horrifying news.

"She told me two little girls just fell out the window," Flowers said.

Flowers got dressed and hurried out the door to see if she could help. A large crowd had already gathered, she said.

"It was pretty bad," Flowers said, shaking her head.

Her friend Willie Mester, standing nearby, breathed in deeply.

"It's just a tragedy. It's just messed up," he said.

The building is part of the Transitional Housing Program for the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley and is owned by Valley Housing Development Corp. It has 12 units for homeless families pursuing educational or vocational training.

CACLV Executive Director Alan Jennings said he only had very basic information about what happened and had yet to speak with police as of late Friday night. He said he was deeply troubled by what he had learned so far.

"This is the kind of tragedy you never want to see happen," Jennings said, "especially in a situation where the person is in your care. All you can do is drop to your knees and beg God for mercy."

Neighbors decried the shoddy condition of the windows on the five-story building.

"There's women and kids in there," Flowers said. "They should have bars or something on those windows."

Jalil Rasheed, sitting by his table of incense, beads and other memorabilia on Seventh Street, said he knows the little girls who fell. He said they walk by almost daily with a woman he believes might be their mother and he frequently gives them candy or bracelets if he has any handy.

Rasheed, like Flowers, wondered how a building housing many children could lack certain safety measures. Something like this, he said, could and should have been prevented.

"What has to be done, and I have been saying it for a long time, is you need someone to add some locks and security to those windows," Rasheed said. "It should be the responsibility of the landlords."

More than an hour after the girls' fall, Seventh Street was still crowded with people. But Rasheed noted that none behaved as if it were a usual Friday night.

"The street is numb," he said. "It's very somber. Why can't you have kids looking out the window? That's not right. [The city has] got to take this stuff seriously now — especially when it comes down to children."

Dan Beers, executive director of Valley Housing Development Corp., said his building maintenance crews try to address window security, but tenants have been known to remove certain safety measures.

He said the city prohibits any barring of windows because that would prevent rescue crews, such as firefighters, from getting in during an emergency. Instead, he said, whenever an apartment is vacated, the maintenance crews make sure blocks on the windows are in place to stop them from opening past a certain point.

"The only thing we can do is prevent the windows from opening all the way," Beers said. "The blocks are there to prevent just this type of thing from happening. Sometimes residents would remove those blocks so they can get more air. I don't know what happened in this situation. This is just terrible. It's very upsetting."

Beers said he will be investigating what, if anything else, can be done to make the apartments safer.

"We'll certainly be taking a look at it to see what else we could do to make it better," Beers said.

On Saturday morning, a bouquet of yellow roses lay on the sidewalk where the children fell.

Lehigh County coroner Scott Grim said an autopsy will be performed today. No further information on the sister's condition was available Saturday morning, and police have not said if any charges will be filed.